BOOK EXCERPT

More Than Meets the Eye

By Dennis E. Hensley

Years ago, when my children were still young, I took a
job in a public relations department at a college. I had a great deal of freedom
to come and go as I pleased. As long as I achieved the desired results, no
one monitored my activities.

However, despite not having anyone to hold me accountable
for my comings and goings, it seemed that the Holy Spirit made me very conscious
of any weaknesses in my work habits. For example, if I arrived a few minutes
late at my office in the morning or after lunch, I’d experience a terrible
sense of guilt; it caused me to work late at the end of the day to compensate.
Or, if I took someone to lunch to discuss college-related matters, I’d
feel uneasy if the bill seemed too high for my expense account; so, I’d
wind up paying for my own lunch out of my personal money.

Part of me resented the way I always was made to feel
self-conscious about these situations. No one else in my department seemed
to worry over such matters. My colleagues came in late and didn’t make
up the lost time. They charged all of their expenses to their entertainment
accounts without batting an eye.

“Why is it just me, Lord?” I wondered. “Why
doesn’t everyone else feel honor bound to do what’s right? Why
is it that the Holy Spirit just seems to be focusing on me?”

After several weeks of complaining like this, I received
an answer from God. It came by way of a real-life illustration.

One Saturday afternoon my seven-year-old son came running
into the house. He was all excited.

“Dad, the other kids are riding their bikes over
to the park on the other side of town,” he told me. “I want to
go with them. Is it OK?”

I grimaced and shook my head. “Sorry, pal, but that’s
too far for a little guy like you to go by bicycle. I’ll drive you over
in the car, though. You can meet your friends there.”

I smiled consolingly. “Not until you’re older,
son. There are a lot of streets to cross between here and the park, and lots
of busy traffic. I’d worry too much about you. Come on. We can put your
bike in the trunk and you can ride it once you get to the park.”

He stamped his foot in anger. “You never let me
have any fun,” he said loudly. “Mike’s dad is letting him
ride his bike and so is Allen’s dad and Stuart’s dad and Joey’s
dad. Everybody else is getting to ride a bike. Why not me?”

“Look,” I said flatly, “I don’t
care how many other kids are riding bikes to the park. I still say it’s
too dangerous for you and you aren’t going to do it. I love you, and
I want what’s best for you. Now, you can either go over in the car or
else stay here.”

After another ten minutes of railing against my unfairness
(and getting nowhere), he finally gave up and let me drive him to the park.
He sulked the whole way.

When we arrived, the other kids gathered around our car.

“Didn’t Stuart come with you?” they
all asked.

“No,” I answered. “Was he supposed to?”

“Well ... no, not really,” said one of the
older boys, “but he never showed up. We sort of outdistanced him a few
blocks after we left home. We thought he probably went back to his house or
to your place.”

I felt sudden concern. “You mean you lost him?”
I asked. “You left little Stuart all by himself?”

“We thought he knew the way,” said another
boy, looking down at his shoes.

“Quick! All of you! Into my car! Show me where you
left him.”

We drove back to the street where the group had left Stuart.
He wasn’t around. We went to a gas station and called our house and
Stuart’s. He hadn’t been to either place. Stuart’s parents
drove to our location to join our search. Everyone was becoming very concerned
by now.

Fortunately, an hour later, we located Stuart. He was
sitting in an alley, dirty and crying. His bicycle chain had snapped after
he’d been abandoned. He’d tried to find his way back home, but
he’d gotten lost.

After Stuart and his bike were both safe at home again,
I thought it would be a good time to emphasize to my son how right I had been
in not letting him go off on his bike with the other boys. But before I could
begin my fatherly lecture, my words caught in my throat.

I suddenly remembered what I had said to my son earlier
that day about how I hadn’t cared about how many other people were doing
something I felt wasn’t right or good for him. That was exactly how
my heavenly Father had been treating me!

No matter how many other people had been taking advantage
of my employer, God had refused to let me be part of such behavior. I had
been griping and whining about how “unfair” it all was, but God
had not been swayed by my childish pouting and complaining. He had held firm
to what was right and best for me. Now, I was able to see that.

I recalled how in Revelation 3:19 Jesus said, “Those
whom I love, I reprove and discipline” (nasb).

I put my arm around my boy and said, “We’ve
both learned a good lesson today, son.”

Scripture Verses to Ponder

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord
your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to
be his people, his treasured possession.
—Deuteronomy 7:6

But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then
choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your
forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose
land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.
—Joshua 24:15

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him
who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not
a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers
in this world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
—1 Peter 2:9–11

Questions to Consider

1. Can you remember being in school when you had to be
up on all the latest trends and dressed in the most current fashions? Social
scientists call this the “herd instinct.” We don’t want
to feel out of place. Knowing this about human nature, what problems does
this present when we feel we need to maintain our testimony when the crowd
wants us to go or behave in another way?

2. What incidents from the Bible can you recall wherein
one saint of the Lord had to stand alone against the masses? Begin by considering
Noah, Job, Daniel, and Esther.

3. Without seeming to be a rabble-rouser, how can you
make a stand for the Lord at work? in your neighborhood? among your social
acquaintances?

4. Think for a moment of some recent situations in which
you have taken a stand for the Lord by your actions or words or decisions.
In what ways were you ostracized or criticized for this stand? How did you
find strength through the Scriptures or prayer to enable you to hold to your
convictions?

5. Does Satan also have his followers who are willing
to take a stand for evil? What motivates them? To what ends should we, as
Christians, go to resist their efforts to alter our government, our schools,
our way of life?